After spending some time in the BlackBerry Beta Zone, the latest BlackBerry Android app updates have now started to filter out through the Google Play Store. This time around, the BlackBerry Hub gets the most attention as it features plenty of new enhancements as well as the long-awaited dark theme option. Also rolling out as a bit of a surprise is a new update to Password Keeper which also includes a new dark theme option.

Hub

Dark Theme: You can now enable dark theme support inside the Hub.

Attachment view: Bringing back a BlackBerry 10 feature, you can enable a separate view that just displays attachments. Tapping on a dedicated icon on the action bar allows you to quickly see all attachments in either a list view or a grid view. The view even displays attachments that have not yet been downloaded.

Support for .msg attachments: You can now view .msg attachments from within an email.

Additional Hub integrations: Hub now supports WeChat and Line notifications.

Filing improvements: Improved suggestions when filing emails based on most frequently used folders.

"Splat" notification improvements: Support for splatting (aka, the red and white Spark icon) on custom created views in the Hub

Enhanced S/MIME details: The S/MIME details of received messages have been expanded to better reflect details such as signature and certificate status, encoding algorithms, and any security warnings.

Enhanced S/MIME attachment support: Signed and encrypted messages that have both p7s and p7m attachments are now supported.

FIPS-validated S/MIME for BlackBerry Android: When Hub is used on BlackBerry Android smartphones, S/MIME functions are performed using the newly-added FIPS-validated crypto module for added security.

Password Keeper

Dark Theme: Password Keeper also gets a new setting to turn on dark theme.

The updates should be appearing for most folks now, if you're not seeing them as of yet, just hang tight as they'll be along shortly. You can download the BlackBerry Hub here and Password Keeper right here. Need to know how to enable dark theme in the Hub? Be sure to check out previous help article for that.

After about a week of testing this update, I came back here to share my results. This update has undoubtedly resulted in improved performance in the Hub on my Verizon Priv. Prior to the update, when I tapped on an email, the three icons at the top right (file message, delete, and overflow menu) took 2-3 seconds to appear. Now they appear nearly instantly. Nice job BB! It took a while, but better late than never.

******* idiots. BlackBerry 10 users have been asking to change it for a long time. A ******* small change on the properties file. You could not do it. Because why? **** BlackBerry 10 users. Let them open the hub and hurt their eyes at night when that is the only non dark section on software among all apps. **** yourself, whom so ever decide not to chnage in bb10.

Massive disappointment.... HUB+ won't work unless you grant ALL of the permissions. I just installed the update. I denied the "location" permission. HUB+ said it wouldn't work without this permission, so I uninstalled the update. Now Hub+ says it won't work without the latest updated. Wow. Just wow.

Dark Hub interface looks good, and white text against dark background works well for plain emails. It seems, however, that most HTML / image content in emails is optimised for white background -- and, to me, it looks somehow odd on dark grey background (especially images with 'transparent' elements to them).
Undecided...

Like the bells and whistles but sending from aliases is still the stumbling block for me. This needs to be in an update to make the hub my single emailing app. For now I will have to carry on using outlook mobile.

Ok, that is simply beautiful! Thank you BlackBerry! You have done one fantastic job! Looks exceptional on the PRIV!
Keep up the good work.
We are moving to google GSuite so here's hoping the HUB can handle the extra Google tagging and stuff.
Please allow for bigger numbers when dialing from an android touchscreen
Looking forward to Nougat on this bad boy.
How about a souped up Reminder / task / remember app?

Attachment view is a great addition. Even better is the fact that when composing an email you can now easily select an attachment from the Hub. This was the Hub feature I used the most on BB10 and I'm very happy to see it return on my Priv.

What I would be curious to find out is how popular the Hub app is with users of non-Blackberry branded Android devices? Are the numbers high enough for BlackBerry to support development/improvements to the Hub app well into the future?

(And to echo others... I love my Priv but I really don't see why people see Android as such a great o/s. I miss BB10 on a daily basis... sad that the app gap issue was never solved and more consumers weren't willing to give it a shot. Also sad that I will probably never see another version of the Priv as I really do love the form factor of this phone and still receive frequent compliments about it that tend to be accompanied by the expression "oh wow, that's a BlackBerry?!?" )

Immediately updating to see the hub filing improvements. I've been using it and it's been getting the folders right about %50 of the time, even 2nd option wasn't right most of the time, I hope we can get more keyboard shortcuts to file emails with enter or something like that if we want to file into the 1st suggestion instead of having to up and tap on the result list.

.msg attachment used to work before, was it removed on recent update and added back now?

Dark Theme? Thanks for bringing it back, but I like my BB the way BB has always been, black text on white background. Black view makes it look like stock android email clients. Let's see what else people will keep bugging BB for now that ever so famous dark hub is available..

This so called Dark Hub_Beta is not something i was expecting.
The visibility is not so good due to gray shed.
May be ideal for OLED screen but still Black hub with bright colored content is more user friendly.

The dark looks good, and not just aesthetics and AMOLED concerns... the account colours are more noticeable, and the unread yellow envelopes are more pronounced.
One thing that is really needed though is the ability to open "winmail.dat" attachments. Other email apps can open them fine, but the Hub can't do it natively.
All the apps I've tried from the Google Playstore are clumsy and don't do it well. They extract the contents into a folder temporarily and only open within that app.

The text client is definitely a weak point. Not too sure if the fault lies with the Hub app or the underlying text client but group text messages are handled very poorly. Replying to a group text separates it into X number of individual text messages and eliminates whatever group text message thread that had already been established so that further replies show up as coming from the individual instead of the group.

It's incredibly useful for one simple reason: when you're checking your phone in your vehicle, dark hub doesn't brighten up the interior like a floodlight, showing everyone what you're NOT supposed to be doing.

Looks so much better... hope the performance improves at least tenfold with the Mercury hub compared to my Priv... the frequent overheating, battery draining, slooow performance of the hub, and the abysmal integration of WhatsApp still makes my Passport perform like the Priv is a gigantic downgrade... hope the 625 will be sufficient for an agile BlackBerry interface.

Looks great! Now the account colours on the edge screen of my PRIV look awesome! Now just need the HUB widget in Dark theme! And of course BBM
BTW just installed Password Keeper and Dark theme looks great!!

I agree with you! Most of my accounts are color coded, but they didn't really stand out very much because the bars are so thin. Against the dark background, they definitely don't get lost. I use the Flag feature a lot too and now the little flags stick out like...well, like flags!

Just waiting for the bb10 whiners to protest this latest transgression..... wait a minute.... I am one of those whiners..... Where is my BBM cross platform video calling? (don't really care about the dark theme hub).

Count me as one of those BB10 whiners. It's another slap in the face for BB10 users & supporters. How difficult can it possibly be to give us an update that allows the user to choose a light or dark theme for the Hub? They did it long ago with the native onscreen keyboard. So why not with the Hub?
I understand BlackBerry has got to do what has to be done in order to survive the dog eat dog world of business. But to all but abandon the loyal user base is the ultimate betrayal.

Posted via CB10 with my awesome  Z30 STA100-5/10.3.3.2163 on T-Mobile USA who keeps disrupting & improving the wireless industry (but I'm not a supporter of the new T-Mobile One plan).

Like one of those movies where folks are sent adrift in a raft with a few provisions, as opposed to being directly drowned or fed to sharks -- can't Blackberry send us BB10 users afloat into the ether with a dark hub and a few other goodies/essentials?

Am I imagining or is there a noticeable speed improvement in the Hub? I have the Verizon version and the Hub (among other things) was painfully slow at times prior to this update, but I need a good week to fully test.

That and keyboard shortcuts within the browser. Love u to start typing the new url, w to open new tab, q to view tabs, b to scroll to the bottom, t to scroll to the top, r for reader mode, l for reload, h for history, etc.

Posted without the aid of AutoCorrect with my physical keyboard via CB10

Yes please, Calendar!! And now that you addressed the Music App, you don't have idea, how much I miss it, even though I'm still using my Z10, but all my music were in an external memory that I put in my Sony Xperia Z5 and I was never able to find a simple Music Player as functional, practical and basic but beautiful as Blackberry 10's.
I hate the white and ugly dialer and contact book... well, a little bit more than a year and still missing Blackberry 10 features so much!

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